Just My Imagination

[Kieran Erith]

She was still getting used to flying. It had only been a number of months since Esther Nova had first stolen a ship and flown to the other end of the galaxy, and it frequently seemed as though it would take all the travel in the world to get her used to the experience. Luckily, all the travel in the world was exactly her plan.

Starting here.

"When do we land?"

"Soon." The vessel's pilot looked nothing short of bored, and his answer was tediously robotic.

If Esther was conscious that she was outranked by the Rodian in the pilot's seat, she gave no indication of caring. "The distress signal came in an hour ago. People could be dying. Fly faster."

"We land soon," he repeated, more irritable this time.

"Great," came her response, and it was hard to tell if she was being facetious or not. In fact, the redhead looked as though she'd be enjoying herself without all the interference. Esther had mixed feelings about flying, but travel she took a certain satisfaction in, the same contentment of learning, of finding answers. She didn't like a whole lot, but she liked to learn.

And the fact that the travel in question was to investigate an emergency at a research laboratory? That was certainly a bonus.

Marching out of the cockpit, she found the other agent sent with her. A stranger--she expected to be working mostly with strangers for a while before she got to knowing the people of the Empire. Esther supposed there was plenty of learning to do in that aspect too.

"We land soon. You got everything you need?"

| [member="Farah"] |​

 

[Farah]

Viral outbreaks were fascinating on many levels. On a morbid one for sure, but there were a lot of biological and social aspects at play. Where they were born from, how they spread, how they were curbed and how they killed. There would be a lot to learn here.

Hopefully. There were dozens of viruses and bacteria that could cause a plague and Farah had access to their catalogues. It would be boring as all hell if they finally landed only to find that the sickness had ravaged a planet to the ground. Even worse if it was something they already knew how to control. Then there’d be nothing to gain from it.

Farah was still an empathetic creature. Not as heavily as her template because her drive was focused less on helping people and more on learning. Sometimes you had to push past your mind’s initial response to see things for what they were.

“Almost,” She grunted in response to the ginger, not once looking up while she worked at stuffing some sort of device into her bag. Little of the Zeltron’s attention had gone to combat so it was good that she was not alone in this endeavor. “I’ve got the med scanner, viral analyzer, autoclave…” She went on before standing up slowly, testing the weight of her bag.

Nope, wouldn’t do without the autoclave and the extra gloves. Not without knowing what they were up against.

“Do you know what we’re up against?” She inquired, wondering if the other woman had any more information as they neared their target world.

[member="Esther Nova"]

 

[Kieran Erith]

“Much as you do,” Esther replied listlessly. The facility's research was for the most part classified, and information was given out solely on a need-to-know basis. Given the obvious urgency of the emergency there might've been a more thorough briefing, except as it turned out the distress signal had been too hurried to disclose exactly what had gone wrong.

Of course, there were a dozen ways to kark up studying a virus. It paid to be prepared--rather than with medical equipment, with weapons. Esther was more fascinated than she'd let on to get a look at the research they found and even more so to see what disaster it had led to, but her job was to put out a fire. Not to study it.

Maybe another time.

“If they locked down quickly, it'll be contained enough to handle.” Clearly she was in the dark on what it would amount to, but she otherwise sounded entirely sure of herself.

The craft shook as they started to descend, and Esther lifted an eyebrow at nothing in particular. She supposed that what's-his-name must have flown faster after all. Double checking her own gear, she gestured with a jerk of her head for the Zeltron to follow as the redhead moved for the still-shut landing ramp.

From there she didn't speak when they landed clumsily on the roof of the building, or when the landing ramp lowered, or when they moved to find an entrance. Esther wasn't unsociable, but she was impatient, and her mind had one track. Right now that was finding what they came for.

So when she spoke again it was as they found the locked entrance unlit, and it was only of necessity--

“Power's cut.”

| [member="Farah"] |​

 

[Farah]

“Brilliant.” The Zeltron replied gruffly. She didn’t blame Esther for her lack of information. The situation was less than ideal, but Farah was a perfectionist and needed everything in order. Though able to think on her feet, she was unlike her template in the sense that she did not like to be too flexible when it came to challenging matters.

As they landed on the urban world and disembarked into the facility, Farah noted how at rest everything in the building seemed to be. Undisturbed, peaceful. Everyone inside was probably dead. Which would have been…slightly disappointing.

“Of course it is.” She deadpanned, expecting the roadblock but not exactly liking it. “Right then, you take out the door I suppose.” The doctor placed the bag down at her feet and began to rummage around before retrieving rebreathers. The pair were already clad in envriosuits, of course. They didn’t know what they were heading into, but it was good to be prepared. She handed the gunslinger a rebreather before fitting her own over her face, sliding her detection goggles down over her eyes. A quick click and the light atop them flared to life, giving them both some clarity in darker surroundings.

[member="Esther Nova"]

 

[Kieran Erith]

One hand nearly snatched the rebreather handed her way--Esther wasn't in a bad mood despite constant belief, but she wasn't one to take her time--as she searched her own bag with the other. There was a scanner fixed to the wall opposite the entrance, not that it would be any use now. Fething powercut. Instead, the redhead found a crowbar.

She wasn't necessarily the sort to go straight for brute force. Of course, that wasn't to say she couldn't enjoy it when needs must.

Deftly, the gunslinger fixed on her rebreather mask, then wrenched the door open without missing a beat. (She was more used to breaking and entering than playing firefighter, truth told, but the change of scenery wasn't unwelcome.) The lack of light didn't seem to faze her, but she was cautious all the same as she moved inside the laboratory.

"So, there's something on the loose." Her voice was a bored monotone that didn't seem to fit the words. "We find it first, then look for survivors." Esther paused to take a better look at her surroundings. No dead bodies, no overturned furniture and broken test tubes- their creature would be further inside the building. "Someone should've managed to hide under a desk."

She looked back to Farah.

"You got something to shoot with?"

| [member="Farah"] |​

 

[Farah]

Farah scanned the laboratory, dimly lit by the light from her goggles. It was deserted without so much of a sign of a struggle or anything nefarious. Strange, but that didn’t mean that they should let their guard down. The good doctor had watched too many holodramas to be that naïve.

Moving forward, her head shifted to shine light on the work bench in front of her. One gloved finger drew along the surface of the desk, rubbing it against her index. “No signs of life in this room.” She sighed, knowing that this would only make their job more difficult. And by more difficult, she meant lengthy. It would have been nice if whatever they were after was right here to greet them.

Drumming her fingers on the desk, she thought for a moment before turning her head towards the door. She was hoping that this didn’t turn out to be boring. “Yes.” Farah responded idly. A small, pocket sized blaster was something she tended to keep on her. Could never be too careful, even when you’re a doctor.

As the pair cautiously made their way out of the laboratory and into a clinical looking corridor, Farah suddenly stopped and threw an arm in front of Esther. The display of her goggles had lit up, a faint burning form of infrared to her left indicating that there was something further down the hall. Something alive.

“Something’s alive.” She murmured. “There.” Pointing down the hall, she slipped a hand into her pocket and around the trigger of the small blaster. Soon they would come upon the form of a man in a white lab coat. At one point he may have looked youthful, but his skin was pale, his form thin and gaunt to the point where it looked like he’d quite literally had the life sucked out of him.

He was gasping for breath, eyes straining with desperation as he tried in vain to communicate with the two women.

“It’s…” He gasped, body nearly giving out from the stress of speaking. “Still here…”

A cough wracked his body and he collapsed into a slump, unmoving. The faint light on Farah’s goggles died out.

“Well,” She remarked in a mix of irritation and admiration. Not for what the man had done, but for what had been done to him. She had to find out how this happened if only to sate her curiosity. “That was informative.”

[member="Esther Nova"]

 

[Kieran Erith]

Her own weapons drawn and primed, Esther followed the Zeltron down the hall. She was as keen to find what they'd come for as her companion, and though her impatience was wordless the redhead moved faster than she perhaps ought to, less cautious than she ought to. Esther Nova wasn't exactly known for her reserve.

She stopped in her tracks, however, at the dying scientist. Features that should've been alarmed, fearful, were curious instead, studying his final moments carefully as though she didn't want to miss any detail. Esther was not numb to death, but she kept any reaction she had to herself (they had already wanted to fix the danger. Now they wanted to fix it more. Sometimes, she was rational), adjusting her goggles as she looked ahead.

"Guessing he came that way. Not picking up anything, but it can't have gone far." She cast a critical eye back to Farah and her miniature blaster. "Keep that gun handy."

Her curiosity had increased tenfold seeing its effects. Her fear hadn't quite caught up. Esther turned a corner, gun at the ready and moving with little restraint. The display on her goggles lit up as the pair neared a door- a locked door.

She tried forcing it open and heard shouts from the other side.

"It can't get in, I'm certain-"
"We don't know what it can do-"
"Maybe it's something else-"
"There are more of them?"

​

"Other scientists," she grunted. "It must be close."

Pause.

"Questions first and shoot later?"

It wasn't her preferred approach. But she wasn't the doctor here. Sometimes, she was rational.

| [member="Farah"] |​

 

[Farah]

Farah hummed in thought, gloved finger sliding down the now deceased scientist’s gaunt face. “It’s always unfortunate when you can’t handle pushing beyond your means.”

She did the exact same thing though. Even when they appeared so, Sith weren’t the sort to sit by idly an let opportunity pass them by.

Rising slowly, Farah tore her gaze from the corpse and over to Esther. Her eyes idled down to the pocket blaster in her hand and she shrugged. “I’m hoping that I don’t have to use it.”

The ideal situation would be the threat burning itself out. The absolutely ideal situation would be capturing the threat, whatever it was, for her own benefit. Though, there was always a chance that it wouldn’t be worth it.

She paced herself right behind the other redhead, the pair of them falling into silence as muffled shouts emanated from the closed door. Farah nodded vaguely in agreement, brows knitting in disappointment as she realized that the door was locked from the inside, likely barricaded. Probably wouldn’t do them much good to try and force their way in, who knew if the scientists were armed or not. The last thing you wanted was a bottle of corrosive chemicals to the face.

Figuring that they didn’t have the time for a proper polite knock, Farah slammed her fist against the door in an attempt to get them to quiet down. The terrified hush on the other side was her clearance to speak.

“We’re here to put the threat down but it would be nice if we knew what it was.” She called out, not bothering with introductions. “You don’t have to let us in but you should know that one of your own is out here in the hall looking like he’s had the life sucked from him. Do you know what did this?”

Silence.

Farah sighed and looked back to Esther, motioning at the door.

[member="Esther Nova"]